We have established that a high cholesterol level contributes to heart disease. We know what happens in our coronary arteries to trigger a heart attack. Not all cholesterol is bad for you, HDL or LDL. Once oxygen is introduced to cholesterol it then can become harmful to you. Again how harmful or not harmful depends on cholesterol from what foods and the amount you consume..are you eating healthy? This somewhat goes back to some of our earlier discussions about what is natural to our bodies and what do we consume that is not. Cholesterol is essential and required by our normal body functions. This comes from the amount, and type we take in. Much like sodium problems arise from taking in more than our normal body functions were intended to regulate or use. This can mean a couple of things. One is we can control how much we consume by our choices in the types of foods we eat. The other way we take in more of a particular substance than we should is from it being added to food during processing. Such as sodium, preservatives, and additives to enhance taste, and present a more desirable product to the consumer.
I have often read on food package labels "trans fat free" knowing that trans fats were not good for you but I never knew what they were and why they were not healthy. Trans fats have been described by cardiologist and nutritionist as the worst type of fat that you can consume. Why? It raises your LDL and lowers your HDL. I do not know of any other fat, or food that does that. Lowers good and increases bad cholesterol at the same time. Trans fats are not a normal substance and are rare to occur in natural foods. It is the result of a food industry manufacturing process. Hydrogen is added to vegetable oil in a process know as hydrogenation. Partial hydrogenation to be exact, which is important. The manufacturing process creates the trans fats to reduce the possibility of the oil spoiling. The foods produced from the oil stay fresh longer, have a longer shelf life, and have a less greasy feel and taste than oil not hydrogenated. You will find foods such as snack cakes, crackers, cookies, breads, buns, pancake and cake mixes, donuts, french fries, chicken nuggets, hard taco shells, containing higher levels of trans fats. You also need to be aware seeing a package food product that states "trans fat free" does not necessarily exactly mean that. There is a standard trans fat minimum per serving allowance that if the product is below it is considered trans fat free. Which leads to the problem being per serving. As an example saltine crackers have a per serving of based on a quantity of five and packaged as trans fat free which is not accurate. They do contain the harmful fats and if you eat more than five you are eating more trans fats than you should. As long as you eat five or less that day the government considers you to be trans fat free when eating that product. Also you may eat other additional so called trans fat free products that day unknowing to you the "per serving" boobie trap. So at the end of the day you have possibly eaten several foods thinking you are going the good health route when you are not. I no longer am eating saltine crackers. You know we have talked about this several times recently but to eat healthy you have to really begin to educate yourself on what is and what is not healthy. And as a heart patient it is crucial to know as much about cholesterol and unhealthy foods as possible.
The good news. In recent years the food industry has either eliminated or greatly reduced the use of trans fats in processed food ingredients. It is also true of the fast food industry is converting to using trans fat free oils. This has mostly been the result of public health concerns and governmental imposed food regulations concerning trans fats. The Food and Drug Administration reported a 58 percent decline in recorded blood trans fat levels over a 8 year period.
No, this does not mean we can start eating potato chips and Frito's again. Get use to the fruit and oatmeal. mmmm...mmmm. good
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